By Total Site Solutions · Published October 24, 2026
The right schedule depends on how many people use the space, what kind of space it is, and what your lease or building requires. Here is how to work it out.
Start with how many days people are actually in
Many Chicago offices now run a hybrid schedule, with the busiest days in the middle of the week. Clean around the days people are there, not around a fixed number of visits:
- Restrooms, kitchens and trash get dirty because people use them, so service them after your busiest days
- Floors and dusting build up more slowly, so they can follow a weekly rhythm even if attendance swings
- A quiet Monday or Friday may not need a full clean at all, just a trash and restroom check
If your attendance is lopsided, a three-night schedule after your heaviest days often covers what a five-night schedule used to.
A frequency guide by task
| Task | Typical frequency |
|---|---|
| Empty trash and recycling | Every day the office is used |
| Restrooms: clean and restock | Every day the office is used |
| Kitchen or break room: counters, sink, appliance fronts, tables | Every day the office is used |
| High-touch points: door handles, light switches, elevator buttons, shared equipment | Every day the office is used |
| Vacuum carpets in walkways and common areas | Daily in high traffic, otherwise 2 to 3 times a week |
| Vacuum private offices and low-traffic rooms | Weekly |
| Mop hard floors | 2 to 3 times a week, daily at entrances in winter |
| Dust desks, ledges and furniture | Weekly |
| Glass doors and interior glass | Weekly, entrance glass more often |
| Refrigerator clean-out and microwave interior | Weekly |
| High dusting: vents, light fixtures, tops of partitions | Monthly or quarterly |
| Carpet extraction, floor scrubbing or refinishing | Periodically, based on traffic and floor type |
Treat this as a starting point, not a rule. A dental office, a coworking space and a five-person accounting firm will all land in different places.
Space type changes the answer
- General offices: follow the table above and adjust for attendance.
- Medical and dental offices: treatment rooms, waiting rooms and restrooms usually need nightly service. Clinical waste such as sharps is handled separately by a licensed medical waste vendor, not your cleaning crew.
- Customer-facing spaces like showrooms, salons and banks: the entrance, glass and restrooms are what customers judge, so they need daily attention.
- Multi-tenant buildings: the landlord's janitorial contract usually covers lobbies, corridors and shared restrooms. Check your lease for what's yours and what's the building's before you set a scope.
- Warehouse offices and flex space: dust from the floor side travels. Plan more frequent dusting and filter-aware cleaning than a standard office.
Chicago winters: salt, slush and entry mats
From roughly November through March, Chicago offices fight road salt and slush tracked in from the sidewalk. Salt residue leaves a white film on hard floors, dulls finishes and, left alone, can damage carpet and wood. A winter schedule should include:
- Mopping entrances and elevator lobbies daily with a cleaner suited to salt residue
- Vacuuming and drying entry mats, and making sure there are enough of them to catch slush before it reaches carpet
- Watching for salt lines on carpet near entrances and treating them before they set
This is one of the most common gaps in office cleaning contracts, so it is worth naming in yours.
Signs your current schedule isn't enough
- Restrooms run out of supplies or smell by mid-afternoon
- Kitchen trash overflows before the next service
- Dust is visible on desks and ledges between visits
- Entrance floors look grey or streaky in winter
- Employees are cleaning up after themselves before clients arrive
Any one of these usually means a task needs to move up a frequency, not that you need a full extra night of service.
How to set the schedule and the scope
- Walk the space with your cleaning company and list every room type.
- Assign a frequency to each task using the table above, adjusted for your attendance.
- Write it down. A good contract lists every task by frequency, who supplies consumables, how keys and alarms are handled and how complaints get fixed. See our guide to what to put in an office cleaning contract.
- Review after the first month. Move tasks up or down based on what you actually see.
How Total Site Solutions helps
We set up office cleaning in Chicago on nightly, weekly or custom schedules, and we provide janitorial service for multi-unit and commercial buildings. We start with a walkthrough and give you a free written scope that lists each task by frequency. If you're a business owner in the Loop, River North, West Loop or the suburbs, call us to set up a walkthrough.